Australia is perhaps the only country on earth that permits a bunch of foreigners to play a decisive role in of its elections.
They will do so again at the next election.
Incidentally, that election might be held much later than many think, but more of that anon.
So who are these decisive foreigners and what influence do they have on the election result?
When Australia was founded at federation, people in Australia saw themselves as British subjects. Indeed, a sizable minority had been born in Britain. The right to vote was based on whether one was a British subject – not whether one had been born in Australia or had become an Australian citizen. There was no such thing as an Australian citizen in 1901.
But by 1984 Australia had grown up a bit. Changes to the Electoral Act required someone to be an Australian citizen before they could be put on the electoral roll. You had to be born here or have become a citizen before you could vote – a fairly standard requirement for a nation, you would think.
But in 1984 several hundred thousand British subjects who had not been born in Australia and who had not taken out Australian citizenship were already on the electoral roll. The legislation did not remove them. Some remain on the roll to this day – non-citizens voting in our elections.
The Australian Electoral Commission estimates there are 174,000 of them.
The commission cannot break down their nationalities in detail, but based on birthplace data of the non-citizen residential population at large, about three-quarters would be British and most of the rest New Zealanders. But they could have come from any of the following countries: Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Botswana, Canada, Cyprus, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Kingdom and Colonies, Western Samoa, Zambia, and Ireland.
The 174,000 foreigners comprise about 1.4 per cent of the voting population. The percentage has been higher in past elections. It is easily enough to tip an election. Sometimes only a few hundred votes in a few electorates could change the result of an election.
Yes, Britain and New Zealand are friendly foreign powers, but they are foreign nonetheless. The High Court has ruled as much.
In 1999, the election of One Nation’s Heather Hill as a senator for Queensland was challenged on the basis that the Constitution says that any person who is a subject or a citizen of a foreign power shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator.
Justice Mary Gaudron said, “Mrs Hill was born in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 9 August 1960. By virtue of her birth she was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies. She migrated to Australia with her parents in 1971 and, except for four trips abroad, has lived and worked here ever since.”
The High Court’s conclusion: “Was [Mrs Hill] at the date of her nomination a subject or citizen of a foreign power within the meaning of s 44(i) of the Constitution? Answer: Yes.”
Bizarrely, you are not allowed to sit in Parliament if you are a foreigner (even if a friendly British or New Zealand foreigner), but you can vote, if you got on the roll before 1984.
What is to be done?
The Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Gary Hardgrave, said, “People should be encouraged to take out citizenship.”
But he would not force them. The initiative had to come from the individual and from the heart, he said. Ninety-five percent of residents were citizens. Only a few use the old British subject category to get the vote.
“They should play fair and take the next step,” he said. “A lot of people who have had to flee their country of birth value and embrace citizenship.”
It cost only $20 for a pensioner to take citizenship and $120 for others.
“When a person becomes an Australian citizen they can reapply for a spot on the electoral roll,” he said.
The Electoral Act states that British subjects who were on the electoral roll at 26 January 1984 are entitled to enrol to vote and to vote. The way the Act is worded it seems that if they fall off the roll for failing to respond to a commission audit or moving to a different electorate, for example, they would be entitled to be re-enrolled.
Hardgreave said, “I understand that some AEC officials are interpreting the rules that if you go off the roll you can’t get back on, or even if you move you cannot get back on. That is not an unreasonable interpretation.”
In any event, it might be more difficult for to prove you were on the roll before 1984 and that you are a British subject than it would be simply to take out citizenship.
Fortunately, their numbers and influence in the election outcome are dwindling.
And when will this election be? – Any time before April 16 next year, and purely at the Prime Minister’s whim. The three-year term does not date from the previous election, but from when Parliament first met after that election, plus some time for nominations and the campaign.
Surely, we will not continue with this phoney election campaign till next year? Well, maybe. Ponder this. Bob Hawke, our second-longest serving Prime Minister after Robert Menzies, was sworn in on March 11, 1983, and served till December 20, 1991. John Howard was sworn in on March 11, 1996. He will eclipse Hawke on December 20, 2004. He would nearly love to do so, and only be second to his beloved Menzies. An election before December 20 would put that at risk.
In these terror-ridden times the election could be put off till after the summer break – late February or early March.
Bear in mind also that Governments facing a strong challenge tend to cling to power. Billy McMahon (then aged 64) went some months beyond three years before losing to Gough Whitlam in December 1972.